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Tuesday, December 31, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
6:22 PM
# | | Monday, December 30, 2002
Sunday, December 29, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:31 PM
An explanation is in order. Most people when asked for the origin of the name of the Baby Ruth candy bar would say Babe Ruth. Many have probably read in a "Exciting True Facts!" book that the candy bar was named after Ruth Cleveland, President Grover Cleveland's daughter, in honor of a tour she made of the company (Baby Ruth being her nickname). This is the official explanantion of the Curtiss Candy Company, makers of Baby Ruth. It is also not true as snopes shows. Snopes's main points are:
*For some reason, this same site has the Babe Ruth candy bar that probably inspired this made-up story. **I say early 70's becuase it did not have metric measurements (Hence not after the mid-70's) but did have the modern font of the Baby Ruth name. # | | Thursday, December 26, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:16 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:15 PM
I visited the US Holocaust Memorial Museum today. One of the more touching exhibits is a wall of the Righteous Amongst Nations, non-Jews honored by Yad Vashem for their efforts in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust. I lingered at that wall and read all the biographies; if they can risk their lives, the very, very least I can do is read the parapgraph each was given. Two that especially stuck out for me were Paul Gruninger, a Swiss border guard who ignored the Swiss government's instructions not to allow Jewish refugees to enter Switzerland and got fined and fired for his trouble, and Bishop Chrysostomos. In 1944 Mayor [Loukas] Carrer was ordered at gunpoint to hand over a list of Jews residing on the island [of Zakyntho]. The list was presented to the Germans by Bishop Chrysostomos containing only two names: Mayor Carrer and Bishop Chrysostomos. The Bishop bravely told the Germans, "Here are your Jews. If you choose to deport the Jews of Zakynthos, you must also take me and I will share their fate." In the interim, all the Jews of the island were safely hidden in the mountainous villages.(I note that I only learned of Carrer's part in this through the website. While I'm sure his name was on the wall, his equally brave help in the matter was not mentioned in the display's tale about Chrysostomos.) The display does renew one's faith in humanity, especially as one is about to see the display of shoes stolen from the victims of the camps. # | | Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:32 PM
Anyway, it's 3:30 AM and to stop the room from spinning, I tune in to Cartoon Network. What was broadcast, I felt at the time, illustrated the true meaning of Christmas, regardless of one's faith. It touched me so much that I immediately recorded the plot. This is what I've been able to interpret from my drunken scribblings: This story is not my own. It came from some nature of a Pac-Man Christmas special (called "The Pac-Man Christmas Special" or "How Pac-Man Saved Christmas" or "The First Pac-Man Christmas").Merry Christmas to all and to all a Shalom Aleichem. # | | Monday, December 23, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:54 AM
In said article, In 'n' Out denies that the secret menu exists (despite this receipt with the secret code printed on it). (Thanks to Max Power for both). When I told my friend about the codes, he was all "I'm uncomfortable with a corporation doing one thing and saying another." I replied "Why does everything have to be an object lesson on stuff?" A less conspiratorial explanation could be that the main office doesn't have a secret menu policy but individual stores have the autonomy to create cash register keys for the codes if they want. # | | Sunday, December 22, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:40 AM
# | | Saturday, December 21, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:10 PM
Shuttle crew members are allowed to carry a small bag of personal items into space, and in his, Ramon will include a simple black-and-white drawing borrowed from the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. It is the haunting work of a 14-year-old boy from Czechoslovakia, Petr Ginz, who died at Auschwitz in 1944. Ramon's mother lived to be liberated by the Russians but other family members perished in the Nazis' campaign against the Jews. # | | Thursday, December 19, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:21 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:19 PM
Here's merchandise of that "humorous" album cover. For some reason, Hanukkah Harry is portrayed as injured even though he's the one who beat up somebody. It may be a case of "You should see the other guy." And this page has an MP3 sample. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:11 AM
# | | Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:33 AM
Perhaps the plot isn't so bizarre. Had Guy Ritchie stuck to making funny comedies about British lowlifes, he might have been successful to the point where Madonna would have been known as Guy Ritchie's wife, rather than the reverse. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:13 AM
Presumably in the next episode, Buffy's first strike policy will be called inhumane. Protestors will demand that she work through the UN and perhaps try to understand the root causes of the First Evil. Maybe Mike Farrell will hold an anti-apocalypse press conference and Sean Penn will visit the First Evil and the Ubervamp. # | | Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:46 PM
# | | Sunday, December 15, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:58 AM
# | | Friday, December 13, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
10:56 AM
# | | Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:47 PM
Tom Hanks is set to star in a Coen brothers' remake of The Ladykillers (article here) if that helps the films' case any. # | | Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:07 PM
POTENTIAL SPOILER: Also a couple of years ago, I was at a presentation honoring Get a Life. Kaufmann was there as he was a writer for the show. An audience member asked him about the circumstances of the death of his brother Donald. Charlie mumbled "I don't wanna talk about it." # | | Monday, December 09, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:56 PM
I found through Rachel a nifty blog by the name of Media Yenta. Here Media Yenta gives a theory of ABC's long-term strategy with Jimmy Kimmel and here Media Yenta states what Hollywood could learn from the success of the Jackass movie (and if Hollywood learned said lesson, it would be good news for film lovers regardless of what you think of Jackass). # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:50 AM
# | | Sunday, December 08, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:37 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:31 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:52 PM
# | | Friday, December 06, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
3:02 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
1:07 PM
Farr also produced The Bob Newhart Show and adds an interesting element to a classic Newhart story. Newhart often tells of getting a script where Emily (his wife on the show) is pregnant. His response was "That's a great script. Who are you going to get to play Bob?" What isn't mentioned is that the reason they wrote that script was Newhart was making noises about it being his last season. The script was intended for the last show. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:51 PM
It didn't ruin my enjoyment of the picture at all. For me, it was just another fun thing to do: pretend to be outraged that that ain't Jonathan Winters or whoever. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:31 PM
And they said impersonating Sheldon Leonard was an unmarketable skill. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
12:27 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:06 AM
AMC does have a show on Saturdays at 8 PM EST/PST called "Movies at Our House" starring Jimmy Pardo, a very funny comedian that, unjustly, you've probably not heard of. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:57 AM
A tale I forgot to tell was the friend I was with complained that they weren't opening up the curtains for the screen wide enough for the movie. I said to him, "Didn't you hear? They're showing the pan-and-scan version." Another discussion Mark Evanier and I had was when I asked for confirmation that in the lengthy road show version the Three Stooges only had the very brief cameo that they have in the current version (inspired by a vague memory of a still of them doing more shtick as firemen). He confirmed it and commented that it was the biggest laugh they got in their career and they didn't really do anything. I pointed out that it took the credibility of their thirty-year career to get that laugh. Certainly if you've seen Stooge movies from that time period, probably Kramer's best decision was to only have them do the cameo as nothing they could do would equal the audience's imagination of "here comes trouble." # | | Thursday, December 05, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:35 PM
(I was going to throw in an Uncle Marvel joke but there isn't an Uncle Marvel page. Damn you, Internet!) # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:13 PM
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Posted by Daniel Frank at
2:04 PM
I was tempted to get Winter's autograph despite the no autograph policy of the event. I figured that the worst that could happen would be he'd have me thrown out but perhaps he'd do it as a wacky character. Or even better, maybe he'd put on some nature of a hat and throw me out himself. I had the great pleasure of meeting Mark Evanier during intermission. He introduced me to Chuck McCann and Stan Freberg. Freberg talked to me and Mark of the scene he was in that was in the four-hour road show version but cut from the version we saw. Freberg at the post-show discussion told a couple of stories of doing advertising for the movie (which can be found in his autobiography). Mickey Rooney rambled on about his life story to the embarassment of the audience. Mark later asked me if he was doing Dana Carvey's impersonation. A fair criticism as he even said Carvey's catch phrase of being the #1 box office star in the world; as Carvey and Rooney did a sitcom together in '82, I wonder if this habit of Rooney dates back to then. A fun evening at the theater and the prospect of releasing the road show version seems more realistic than I had previously thought. One minor negative note is that (and I don't know if this is a function of the big screen or of seeing the movie a hundred times) the stunt doubles in some scenes were glaringly obvious (as in an actor's face would turn to the camera and was obviously not his face). I snagged a couple of seating signs: One says "Reserved for Marvin Kaplan" and the other "Reserved for guests of Mr. Rooney". I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. I also now have a print of the Jack Davis poster that I don't have (he made two for the movie). UPDATE: Mark Evanier writes of the evening here. In this article, Mark tells of the different versions and a great story about Phil Silvers's dedication to funny. UPDATE 2: I screwed up the HTML of this entry and so it was jumbled. Fixed now. Sorry 'bout dat. UPDATE 3: Mark replies to my stunt double comment here. I shamefacedly re-edit the post yet again and then reply here. # | | Wednesday, December 04, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
4:12 PM
When E! reran old Smothers Brothers episodes with accompanying interviews, my favorite soundbite was Jackie Mason: "I was on the show. It didn't help my career. It didn't hurt my career. Not everything has to help or hurt your career." # | | Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Posted by Daniel Frank at
9:26 PM
Burns & Allen were playing the London Palladium. Benny secretly flies to London (even telling his writers only that he'd be gone for a few days) and rents a room next to Burns (with the help of a Palladium executive who is the only one in on the gag). At an after-show party in Burns's room, the hotel operator asks for Burns and says "Please hold the wire. I have a person-to-person call from a Mr. Jack Benny in Beverly Hills, California, U.S.A." As Burns waits for the call, Benny sneaks into the room, tiptoes behind Burns and says "Hello, George." Burns seeing Benny bursts into tears so touched was he to see his friend. Benny says to the other guests, "How do you like that? I spend thousands of dollars on a practical joke to break him up, and instead of getting a laugh, I make him cry." He turns to Burns and says in mock anger "Why didn't you laugh?" Burns says "Well, Jack, when you said 'Hello, George,' you read it wrong." Benny has now spent thousands to wind up laughing on the floor due to Burns. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
8:55 PM
Bob Hope once said that you can judge a man by the caliber of people who come out to roast him. I've seen the guest list and if I were you, I'd worry.Sadly for Chevy Chase, that joke is fairly close to the truth. Comedy Central apparently hired the same guy who edits Premium Blend to bring his machete to work on the Roast. Here's a hint to tell if something got edited out: If the laugh seems disproportionally high to the funniness of the joke, then a funnier joke was cut out. I'm also pretty sure that there were a few situations where they left in the set-up but cut out the punchline which is also not unusual for Comedy Central editing of joke-telling. # | |
Posted by Daniel Frank at
7:27 AM
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